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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Update from Bagel Bob

Update from the one and only master of everything round with a hole in the center, Bagel Bob

I have a small addendum to my bagel method, actually two addenda:

The best place I have found recently to purchase 50 lb bags of King Arthur Sir Lancelot flour is Seven Grains Natural Market.
$54.99, free FEDEX shipping, $10.00 handling charge, total $64.99, which is well below the cost from any other source I could locate. Shipping was prompt and it had been in the warehouse for under 3 months before I got it, so it should easily keep another year. (That would be slow bagel making--under one batch a week.) A year is about the longest I have ever kept this type of flour, and there has never been any sign of deterioration over that interval.

2. Diastatic malt in the form of malted barley flour is an additive here, as it is in most commercial flours. Since King Arthur products can come from any of a number of different mills, my impression is that they each add somewhat different amounts of barley flour. The last bag of flour I had made gummy bagels when my recommended teaspoon of Bob's Red Mill Malted Barley Flour was added to the dough, but using just half of that produced perfect results. I will have to experiment with the new stuff, and I will let you know if it seems any different.